Men are such liars … 

Nearly half of all men have lied about what they have read to try to impress friends or potential partners, according to a survey reported by the BBC in November last year.* A poll of 1500 people undertaken on behalf of the National Year of Reading Campaign found that they are most likely to lie when it makes them appear intellectual or romantic. Women (one third of who had lied about their reading habits) thought men should have read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography or Shakespeare. Men, on the other hand, would be most impressed by women not only reading Shakespeare but also news websites and song lyrics. Among teenagers, three quarters of those interviewed were prepared to lie about their reading habits, particularly about social networking websites and song lyrics. 

What would your choice be if, like one in five of those polled you chose to read a book whilst waiting for your date to arrive, in the hope of impressing him or her? Perhaps it would be a heavy tome on quantum physics or a serious work by a prominent political leader. Maybe you would be engrossed in the most recent Booker Prize winner or “re-reading” one of the classics of English literature. Whatever your choice, my guess is that unless you know it will go down well with the particular person you are meeting you are unlikely to be reading a Bible in order to impress. 

Wouldn’t it be fun (and possibly instructive) to commission a poll of 1500 Christians and ask them under what circumstances they have or would be prepared to lie about their Bible reading. Would a potential partner swoon upon finding that a man was well versed in Lamentations? Would you be impressed (or depressed) by discovering a woman well acquainted with the letters of